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• JOHN HENDERSON, 

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THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, 

DECEMBER 28, 1840. 












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To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of Mississippi: 

Gentlemen ; On the 5lh day of March last I received from our Stale 
Executive, and presented to the Senate of the United States, the following 
resolutions, viz : 

Whereas the pecuniary condition of our country is a subject of the most imposing mag¬ 
nitude, and of the deepest interest to the people of this State, demanding the exercise of 
wisdom, firmness, honesty, and patriotism, in those public functionaries upon whom de¬ 
volves the duty of legislation, to the end that the evils under which we labor may be cor-^ 
reeled: and whereas an expression of opinion on the part of the Legislature of this State, 
with regard to the causes of the present evils, and the remedies best calculated to correct 
them, seems to be called for by every consideration of public duty: 

IsL Wherefore he it resolved by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi ^ That, in 
the opinion of this Legislature, the great and primary cause of the prevailing embarrass¬ 
ments and pecuniary difficulties of the country is to be found in erceesive banking, under 
the authority of the General and State Governments; that paper issues, by bank corpora¬ 
tions, purporting to be the representatives of money, in their very nature tend to the se¬ 
duction of individual and national industry from its natural and legitimate pursuits; con¬ 
vert honest enterprise into a spirit of wild speculation; engender public and individual 
extravagance, and looseness of morals; lead to every species of gambling, and beget over¬ 
action in every branch of business: that these are melancholy signs of the present times, 
and that they have kept pace w'ith the increasing redundancy of paper issues for several 
years past. 

2c?. Resolved, I’hat it is the duty of the State and General Governments, so far as they 
possess the constitutional power, to provide a remedy for those evils which have been fast¬ 
ened upon the country by unwise and reckless legislation. * 

3c?. Resolved, That the power of Government over currency is one of the high attributes 
of sovereignty ; that the only currency known to the constitution of the United Slates is 
coin or metallic currency; that the States have not only parted with, and granted to the 
Government of the United States, so much of their sovereignty as relates to coin or me¬ 
tallic currency, but the States have also prohibited themselves from the exercise of such 
attribute of sovereignty as relates to coin or metallic currency ; and also such attribute of 
sovereignty as relates to emitting bills of credit. 

ith. Resolved, That the Independent Treasury system, recommended by the President 
of the United States to Congress, by which the moneyed operations of the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment are proposed to be entirely separated from the banks, and the revenues collected 
in coin, is the only measure within the competency of Congress to impose an effectual re¬ 
straint upon inordinate issues of bank paper; that it is contrary to the genius and policy 
of the Government that its revenue should be used in aid of commercial, manufacturing, 
or any other privileged interest, through the instrumentality of banks, to the prejudice of 
the agricultural and productive interests: therefore, 

bth. Resolved, That, believing that the connexion of the Government with the banks 
exerts a deleterious influence upon the industry of the State of Mississippi, this Legisla¬ 
ture is of opinion that the Independent Treasury system, with the specie clause, should be 
adopted at the present session of Congress; and that our Senators be instructed, and our 
Representatives requested, to vote for the same. 

^th. Resolved, That the bill introduced in the Senate of the United States, by the 
Committee on the Public Lands, to graduate the price of said lands to actual settlers, is a 
measure that is called for by the best interests of the State. 

7th. Resolved, That this Legislature heartily approve the leading measures of the late 
and present administrations of the Federal Government; that they have full and entire 
confidence in the talents, integrity, and patriotism of Martin Van Buren, the Chief Exec¬ 
utive Magistrate; and that they regard his administration as giving promise of the same 
success which marked that of his illustrious predecessor. 

8?A. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress are hereby instructed, and our Repre¬ 
sentatives requested, to support, in good faith, the leading measures and policy as here¬ 
tofore brought fonvard and advocated by the PnRSinEirT of the Uwited States, and 
to use all fair and proper exertions to carry out and sustain and accomplish the same. 


4 


9//i. Resolved^ That the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing pre¬ 
amble and resolutions to our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United 
States. J. SPEIGHT, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
GEO. B. AUGUSTUS, 
President of the Senate. 

■ Approved, February 13, 1840: A. G. MoNUTT. 

In submitting them to the consideration of the Senate, I accompanied theii 
presentment with these remarks : 

“ Mr. PiiESiDENT : T rise to present a series of resolutions, nine in number, passed by 
the Legislature of the State of Mississippi. These resolutions recognise the existing em¬ 
barrassments of the country, and express the sense of that honorable body that they are 
mainly attributable to excessive banking. 

As a measure of curing the evil, they commend the sub-Treasury bill, with the specie 
clause, and instruct the Senators here from that State to vote for this bill. As that bill 
has passed this body, and against my vote, I will only observe that, apprehending the in¬ 
troduction of some resolution upon this subject in the Legislature of Mississippi, (and 
before the bill passed here, I was advised such a refiolution had been introduced,) I voted 
to delay the passage of the bill on every occasion presented, that I might hear the result 
of the deliberations of the Legislature of Mississippi on the subject, intending to conform my 
vote with such result; being fully decided, however, that unless that honorable body would 
assume the responsibility of an affirmative vote on that bill, my own deliberate judgment 
being against it, I should vote accordingly, and as I did vote. 

“ In these resolutions the Legislature also express an opinion in favor of a graduation of 
the price of public lands to actual settlers; and, though no formal instruction accompanies 
this opinion, I am happy to say here that I concur in this proposition, and would cheer¬ 
fully go much further in the principle it indicates, and would secure the home of the actual 
settler on public lands before survey, not merely by pre-emption, but by actual donation. 

“ These resolutions also approve the leading measures of the late and present Adminis¬ 
trations of the General Government, and express the confidence of the Legislature in the 
present Chief Magistrate of the United States; on which expressions of opinion and con¬ 
fidence I do not feel called upon to make any comments at this time. 

“ The last of these resolutions, purporting also to be a legislative instruction, if I did not 
know my silence might be misconstrued, I should forbear any particular notice of here, 
intending as I do to respond more fully to its character and pretensions elsewhere. 

“I have ever, Mr. President, avowed and practised the republican principles of Jefferson 
and Madison as my political creed, including in these principles the doctrine of instructions 
as I understand them, and as the old Republican Party have heretofore regarded them. 
But a modern miscalled democracy, practising a Federal faith of implicit homage, if not 
servility to Executive dominion, and to accomplish party ends, and not the legitimate at¬ 
tainment of a measure discussed and deliberated on by the People in the place of their 
Representatives, claims an unwarrantable application of the doctrine of instructions, of 
which the resolution before me is an illustration. 

“This resolution assumes to instruct the Senators from Mississippi to support, in good 
faithf the leading measures and policy of this Administration, as heretofore put forth by 
the President^ S^'C. Sfc. 

“ A manifest objection to this resolution is, that it is vague and indefinite in the objects 
of its requisition, and obviously dangerous in the same degree in which it is indefinite. 
It is also unauthorized by any power known to our forms of government, and without 
example in the practice and precedents of the old Republican party. It is anti-democratic, 
as yielding a blind and slavish deference to Federal Executive opinion. It is subversive 
of political morality, of personal integrity, of necessary freedom of debate, and of repre¬ 
sentative responsibility. It is, in short, destructive of the constitutional apportionment of 
rights, powers, and duties, as distributed and restricted, and hence essentially revolution¬ 
ary in its tendency, as changing both the theory and practice of our Government. 

“ The Legislature of Mississippi and myself have a common constituency—the People 
of our State. There is no principle of our Government that contemplates a transfer by 
the State Legislature of the will and wishes of the people to the care and keeping of the 
Federal Executive, with a mandatory order to the Representative to consult the Executive 
for his opinions and policy, as a means of correctly ascertaining the people’s will, so there 
deposited. All will perceive I could not discharge the duty thus assigned me, in good 


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faithi without such consultation. The proposition is so opposed to the principles of Slate 
rights, and the republican faith as heretofore taught, and so wholly in conflict with the 
structure and theory of our Government, that I can scarcely imagine it to be the result of 
dispassionate reflection. Be this, however, as it may, with my own undoubted convic¬ 
tions on the subject, I cannot consent to become the instrument of thus prostrating those 
N sacred barriers in our constitutions of government which the fathers of our country have 
interposed with so much policy, wisdom, and circumspection, for the limitation and secu¬ 
rity of the rights of each department, and’ the healthful preservation of our common 
liberties.” 

Shortly afterward, your vote of censure, &c., approved by the Governor 
on the 22(1 of February, 1840, came to hand, in form of the following reso¬ 
lutions, viz : 

Whereas, information has just been received in this city, that the Independent Treasury 
bill had passed the Senate of the United States, and that the Hon. John Henderson, one 
of the Senators from Mississippi, voted in opposition to the same: 

Therefore, by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, be it resolved, that John 
Henderson, Esq., a Senator in the Congress of the United States, in casting his vote in 
opposition to the Independent Treasury bill, grossly violated the known will of a large 
majority of the people of Mississippi. 

Resolved^ That John Henderson, Esq. by casting his vote in the Senate of the United 
States, in opposition to the will of the people of Mississippi, so lately expressed, has acted 
i» derogation of the rights of the freemen of this State, and deserves at the hands of their 
representatives their sternest rebuke. 

Resolved, That when a representative violates the vvill of his constituents, knowingly 
by his conduct, he is as deserving of reprobation, as though written instructions had been 
delivered to him and disregarded. 

Resolved, That the Hon. John Henderson be, and he is hereby, invited, and respect¬ 
fully requested, forthwith to resign his ofBce as Senator; to the end that the will of the 
people of Mississippi may be fairly expressed. 

You will perceive my remarks in the Senate indicated niy purpose to re¬ 
ply to your resolutions of 13lb February, when your adjourned session should 
afford me the opportunity. Your further resolutions of 22d February have 
imposed a second obligation of like character, and I shall now endeavor to 
discharge both. 

In the outset of this reply, I reiterate what I have repeatedly avowed, my 
firm belief in the doctrines and principles of instruction as oligatory upon the 
representatives, equally in both branches of both our national and State Le¬ 
gislatures. But on what foundation does this political doctrine rest? What 
Its rules, bounds, and limitations? Has it none? If none, then it puts aside 
all constitutions and forms of government, and substitutes in their stead the 
tjnstable and capricious will for the time being of a dominant party. Those 
who push it to this extent, and claim for it such absolute consideration, act 
with an inconsiderate violence that multiplies arguments and enemies against 
it, and incurs upon its just pretensions obloquy and contempt. 

If, in tracing the foundation and bearings of this doctrine, I should con¬ 
vict vour honorable body of such like perversion, I beg you will consider it 
is with no design of repelling your censure and personal aggression in a spirit 
of resentment, but only to vindicate my own integrity, together with the doc¬ 
trine which you profess, and which it is my purpose in good faith to practise. 

It is to be deplored that, in the numerous resolutions of legislative instruc¬ 
tion to Senators in Congress which have gone forth from time to time, there is 
found so little of the virtue of consistency and the accumulated strength of pre¬ 
cedent to advise and establish the public intelligence on this subject. (See note 
at the end.) Most of those which have emanated in good faith and without „ 
party bias have avowed no rules for their authority, whilst those originating,-' 


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in party asperity, have often defied alike all rule and all reason, it is never¬ 
theless believed that the principal rules which govern this doctrine are so ob¬ 
viously prescribed, that reasonable men will not difier essentially in under¬ 
standing them. And I feel particularly gratified that your honorable body 
has furnished me the evidence, in the resolutions before me, that you at least 
concur in the same principles I have ever professed, and shall continue to 
maintain on this subject, however much we may differ in the application of 
them. 

In deducing \\\e principles and ground-work of this right, it is unnecessary 
to prove that which none deny, that all our governments are founded in the 
will of the people. Every form, power, and proportion they possess;— 
all their obligations, limitations, and restrictions, but exhibit the embodied will 
of the people—the pledged, permanent, and abiding expression of that 
will, and so to remain unchanged, except in the manner prescribed in 
the compact. Now, the agents appointed by such organic expression of pop¬ 
ular will, to administer their powers and trusts, to shape and fashion their 
measures and policy, would be in strange dissonance w'ith the theory of such 
forms of government, if not likewise bound to reflect the popular will in their 
administration. Hence, I conclude, results the essential theory of our rep¬ 
resentative principle—the agent representing the will and wishes of his con¬ 
stituents in the measures and policy of government, who, by reason of the 
mere/om of government only, are not present to urge them in person. 

I can but anticipate the ready acquiescence of your honorable body in 
these premises, as expressive of a sound orthodox democratic faith. And 
from these premises 1 proceed to inquire into the several powers and duties 
of your honorable body and myself in relation to the people of Mississippi 
and to each other, so far as the doctrine of instructions is involved, and the 
extent to which you claim its exercise. 

Your powers, then, are prescribed by the constitution of the United States 
and of the State of Mississippi, both of which you take an oath to support, 
and both of which, it is assumed, are the permanent expression of the peo¬ 
ple’s will, which they have willed and contracted not to change in any other 
manner than therein prescribed. Faithfully conforming to ihese paramount 
expressions of popular will, our democratic theory indicates, as your further 
duty, that, in all measures of administration, ^cithin the above speci¬ 

fied land-marks, you should truly reflect that will of the people, which, in 
matters of expediency, they have the unquestionable right from time to time 
to prescribe and change, as policy may dictate. 

Now, as you are representatives and legislators for the people of Missis¬ 
sippi, so I acknowledge myself to be. As they all make up your constitu¬ 
ency, so are they mine. And, though my powers of official action are pre¬ 
scribed only by the constitution of the United States, and while more limited 
in their general variety are more extended in their operation, yet, for all the 
purposes of this parallel, I regard my relations to the people of Mississippi 
as substantively the same with yours, and in all measures of mere discretion, 
equally bound to defer to their current and ascertained will. 

Now, if right in the preceding postulates, whence arises your authority to 
instruct me on any subject? and what is the extent of that authority ? Does 
it not begin and end with the will of the people? Do you claim any inhe¬ 
rent power over and above that will ? Has the constitution of the United 
States, or of the State of Mississippi, made me your agent, and amenable to 
your will, whether or not in conformity to the will of our common constitu- 


ents ? Do you claim that ihe right of instruction in the Legislature is 
equivalent to a jpotcer, and that it imposes a positive obligation of obedi¬ 
ence, even though the matter of instruction be in opposition to the constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, or of the State of Mississippi, or to the toill of the 
people of Mississippi ? I shall not do you the injustice to suppose you claim 
any such powers as these questions imply. And yet there are those who 
contend that because the State Legislatures are the electors of the United 
States Senators, that hence arises a power in the Legislature which may 
rightfully command a Senator’s obedience to their instruction, or require his 
resignation. But if this relation alone originated these rights and obligations 
respectively, then the same powers and duties should result from the same 
relation between the college of electors of President and Vice President, and 
those whom their votes invest with these high offices. But such an applica¬ 
tion of the principle becomes too manifestly absurd to require any refuta¬ 
tion ; and it is believed sufficiently exposes the fallacy of the whole propo¬ 
sition. 

Desirous to impute to you only such opinions on this subject as I sup¬ 
pose you have purposed to declare, I conclude you have assumed to ask 
ray obedience to your instructions, simply on the ground that you were ex¬ 
pressing the will of the people ot Mississippi in doing so. That, coming 
recently from among them, you considered yourselves charged with an ex¬ 
pression of their will, which you have sent me in form of monition or in¬ 
struction that I should govern myself accordingly. If this be your theory, 
T accord you m}^ acquiescence. 

But your honorable body do not seem to note the fact with much consid¬ 
eration, that every aspect of this question exhibits us equally as represent¬ 
atives (in different Legislatures) of the people of Mississippi. And as no 
diffidence or distrust has qualified your confident assertion, that, as a rep¬ 
resentative, I have “ grossly violated the known will of a large majority of 
the people of Mississippi,” may I not be permitted to entertain the question 
as possible^ that you are not necessarily infallible in this respect t For if 
I am not bound to close my eyes to the reading of the constitution, the be- 
stowments and distribution of power, and to other external evidence of the 
people’s will, and take your declaration of it as conclusive; if I am not 
foreclosed by a plea of estopel from showing the truth in the case, I have 
no apprehensions of effecting my acquittal, and should be well content to do 
so without implicating my accusers. 

With this latitude of defence, the question of fact on which your accusa¬ 
tion against me is predicated, will be readily disposed of. I assert, then, what 
is known to many of you, that I was elected to the office I now hold with my 
opinion on the sub-Treasury project openly avowed in public addresses to 
the people, and in a circular setting forth my political creed- It is admitted 
that, by the election in November, 1839, a majority of those differing from 
me in their political opinions were regturned to the Legislature. This result 
is assumed (as I suppose) by your honorable body as having furnished me 
evidence equivalent to express instructions on the subject, that a majority 
of the people of Mississippi were in favor of this long-contested measure. 
To this I answer, it was known to me and to you all, that the local bank 
question was the great and highly-exciting question in issue in that election; 
and which did not necessarily involve an expression of the popular will, either 
upon the sub-Treasury scheme or upon any other of national policy. But 
will not disguise the fact, that the result of that election induced doubts in my 


8 


mind as to the will of our people in respect to that measure, and of my 
duty in voting upon it. But, in balancing all the circumstances, my best 
convictions were, that the opinion of the people of our State in favor of the 
measure, as implied in this election, required further confirmation ; and I 
determined, if their Representatives fresh from among them should advise 
me of their wishes in its behalf, that I would vote for it, though opposed 
to my own judgment. The unyielding promptitude (to say no more of 
it) with which the measure was hurried to a vote in the Senate, deprived 
me of your advice, and hence I voted against it. 

But how now stands the question of facti Is your honorable body still 
assured a large majority of the people of Mississippi are in favor of the sub- 
Treasury law] If the election of 1839 was proof positive on this subject, 
how shall we regard the evidence of 1840 ? I will not ofiend against the pro¬ 
prieties of this occasion, by declaring in a tone of over-wrought confidence, 
that the people of our State, at the late election, have sanctioned the same 
vote you have so unsparingly censured ; but 1 appeal to your magnanimity 
if I may not indulge the consolation of believing they have fairly cancelled 
your “ sternest rebukeV' 

But, passing this point for the present, I come to the matter of your 8th 
resolution of 13th February last, which I formerly declared, and now most 
respectfully repeat, was an unauthorized assertion of power on your part; 
obedience to which, a sense of duty compelled me to disclaim. This reso¬ 
lution directs and instructs me “ to support, in good faith, the leading meas¬ 
ures and policy as heretofore brought forward and advocated by the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and to use all fair and proper exertions to carry 
out and sustain and accomplish the same.” 

1 have before said—and the position is incontrovertible—that our consti¬ 
tutions are deliberate and permanent expressions of the people’s will, and 
no rights have been reserved to ^ny fraction of the people to dispense with, 
or change, the specific and practical requisitions of these instruments, either 
by legislative instructions, or any other means than by those stipulated. 
And it would seem to me an hypothesis not to be entertained, that they ever 
wished to do so. That, therefore, can never become a legitimate precept 
of instruction which commands an agent to violate both his oath and the 
constitution of his country at the same time. 

The constitution of Mississippi has divided its civil magistracy into three 
departments, and forbidden their interference with the jurisdiction of each 
other. Should the particular constituents of any one of your honorable body 
instruct you, by petition or otherwise, to hear and determine suits at law 
before either House of your Legislature, which of you would consider your¬ 
selves bound to obey such instructions ? Nor is resignation an alternative;, 
in such a case, to be exacted; because, by the same constitution in which 
the people have willed this division of their civil magistracy, they have wilU 
id and decreed their Representatives sliall (may) hold their office for two 
years; and haVe also willed and decreed they shall take an oath to sustain 
this constitution and these distributions of power inviolate. Now, when the 
Representative so performs his precise duty as enjoined upon him in the 
constitution by the people, is it any thing less than arrant demagoguism to 
charge him in such or like case with a disregard of the popular will ? To 
estimate this principle with such exaggerated pretensions, is to endow it with 
the qualities of a fickle tyranny, inconsistent with itself, and alike subver¬ 
sive of its own ends and objects, and all established forms of government. 


0 


This illustration Is sufficient for all imaginable cases where instructions are 
unauthorized with reference either to the source from which they come, or 
the subject to which they are directed. Take an instance of each description. 

The constitution of the United States has invested Congress with full 
legislative powers over the District of Columbia. In reference to my legis¬ 
lative functions here, my understanding is, that the people of the District are 
my constituents, and, for their legislation, I am fairly bound to consult their 
will and interests. If this he not so, they are equally the victims of the local 
caprices of each separate people of the several States of the l/nion. And the 
people of Mississippi have no right to complain that the people of other 
States are continually thrusting forward their impertinent petitions and in¬ 
structions, to direct the legislation for this District according to their will. 
But must not every American citizen, whose heart is in its right place, and 
who values and comprehends the institutions of his country, perceive the in¬ 
sulting injustice that the laws of this District should he prescribed by the 
people of Maine or Louisiana I J\ow, for myself, 1 regard such officious 
intermeddling with the rights of the people here, as utterly unauthorized, 
and in positive conflict with the theory and spirit of our Government. 

The duty of a Senator in Congress is judicial^ in all cases of impeach¬ 
ment. If on a trial of this kind a State Legislature were to instruct their 
Senators to vote for the conviction or acquittal of the accused, does any one 
believe such instruction fairly imposes a constitutional or reasonable duty to 
obey or resign? 

Regarding the will of the people embodied in the stable form ol consHlu- 
tional law as paramount, these instances exemplify, to a great extent, the 
reasons and rules within which I conceive the true theory of popular in¬ 
structions is founded. And I can neither appreciate the patriotism, policy, 
nor logic, by which it is claimed materially to extend the doctrine beyond 
these limits. 

Within these rules and principles I shall test the itilegrity of your 8th 
resolution. And if it be found to emanate from the people of Mississippi, 
and conform to those constitutional rules which they in good faith and I by 
an oath am bound to preserve and maintain, till they shall change them in a 
manner prescribed by themselves, I will not gainsay its obligation nor my 
duty, so iar as obedience is possible. But if, on the other hand, it directs 
what the people never commanded^ and conflicts with their standing orders 
which they have deliberately commanded, and it should prove only the 
Ignoble exactions of party zeal, and subversive df the strongest barriers estab¬ 
lished to defend and protect our constitutional liberties, what then is my duty ? 

I assert but a freeman’s privilege in propounding the inquiry to your hon¬ 
orable body when it was that the people of Mississippi communicated to y'ou 
their will^ as this resolution imports? Do you intend the inference, that the 
people, by their election of November, 1839, endorsed all the leading “ meas¬ 
ures and policy of the President, as brought forward and advocated by him” 
up to the period of February 1840? And what measures did they so design 
to distinguish? I intend no disrespect to your honorable body, nor any re¬ 
proach upon its intelligence, when I assert, with 'much assurance, that no two 
committees from your honorable body, or from among your political friends 
in Congress, could be raised, which, acting separately and without conference 
with each other, would agree in detailing a catalogue of the ” leading meas¬ 
ures and policy brought forward and advocated^' by the present President of 
these United States, and which you instruct me the people of Mississippi have 


10 


specially admonished me to support in good faith. It is therefore no aflected 
ignorance on my part, when I assure you that 1 could not designate the 
measures you may refer to under this equivocal and compendious description. 
I propose, as an experiment, that we compare notes a little, and see how 
we should be likely to concur. 

The independent Treasury bill does not appear to have been included by 
you in this 8th resolution, because you specially instruct me on that subject in 
a separate resolution at the same time. Two other measures, however, which, 
in my judgment,*would seem entitled to the distinction leading measures,"*' 
prominently present themselves, viz: the President’s proposition to invest 
Congress with a new and untried power over Stale corporations, by process 
of a bankrupt law ; and, secondly, the standing army “p/aw,” so strongly 
recommended by the President. Do your honorable body recognise these 
as two of the “ leading measures" which the people of Mississippi have com¬ 
manded their Senators to “use ciWfair and proper exertions to carry out, 
sustain, and accomplish!” Now my, opinion is, and I am by no means 
singular in it, that to accomplish these measures ^'■fairly " an amendment of 
the constitution is indispensable; and if their '•^policy" be so ardently ap¬ 
proved by our constituents, it is unfortunate, perhaps, that so formidable an 
obstacle is interposed to the achievement of their wishes. 

Passing from these specimens of “ leading measures,” let us note a few 
samples of the President’s '‘'"policy;" for this, too, you advise me, the 
people expressly require 1 should support. Here, also, I am left by your 
honorable body without that degree of light which, if the people have spoken 
explicitly, should have been imparted to me. And with every disposition 
to be candid, it is obvious I might often mistake the purpose or "‘policy" of 
the President under instructions so vague. 

It is a vexed question whether or not it has been the President’s "policy" 
to destroy Slate banks ; equally doubtful whether or not it has been his 
"policy" to introduce an exclusive metallic currency, and break up, so far 
as possible, the credit system. His friends quote him on both sides of all 
these questions. Is it not reasonable, if our constituents intended I should 
support the President’s “ policy" on these important subjects, that I should 
have been better advised than your honorable body have seen fit to advise 
me ? 

There have been some revelations of the President’s '‘^policy" which are 
probably less concealed or equivocal. One, at least, I have believed, con¬ 
spicuously prominent, viz: r policy of strengthening the federal Executive 
power. Hence all who have dared to oppose Executive dominion have been 
hunted down by the President’s pensioners as traitors to their country ; and 
all liege subjects, who obeyed orders with due servility, and thereby fell 
into disfavor with the people, regularly became the favored candidates of the 
President’s patronage. A long list could readily be presented, verifying 
this '‘^policy" and these truths. 

Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson avowed the doctrine that the patron¬ 
age of office should not be brought in conflict with the freedom of elections. 
But in this enlarging '"'‘policy" of executive power, the right and tenure of 
office has been boldly staked upon the officious, efficient, and boisterous zeal 
of the partisan. 

The constitution of the United States prescribes that ^ All legislative 
power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, 
whicb shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives,” The Presi- 


11 


dent has proclaimed that he constitutes a “ component part of the legislative 
power'"* These instances 1 deem sufficient to establish one distinguished 
feature in the President’s policy'' And have the democratic citizens of 
Mississippi instructed me to cherish and sustain this policy V"* May I not 
rather hope there is some mistake or misunderstanding in this matter? And 
yet I confess this 8th resolution of your honorable body points alarmingly to 
the promotion of this precise policy of augmenting Executive power. 

In the difficulty of accomplishing your ^e7i6ru!/directions, from the numer¬ 
ous cases of doubt that must arise, what more reasonable means of certifying 
myself in a correct discharge of the duty thus assigned me, than by personal 
consultations with the President 1 But in what democratic system of poli¬ 
tics has it been taught, that the representative should confer with the Exec¬ 
utive for the measures and policy of his legislative duties, rather than with 
his constituents? It is perhaps reserved to your honorable body, and to 
one other similarly distinguished for its unwonted zeal and enlightened per¬ 
ceptions in the cause of modern democracy, to answer. But though this sug¬ 
gestion of transferring Senators in Congress over to the President’s use is 
not original with your honorable body, yet the time and circumstances of the 
discovery, the novelty of the assignment, and the doubtfulness of the title, 
concur to render the precedent questionable, and do not strongly commend it 
to further imitation. 

But the most remarkable pretension of this resolution is, the spiritual right 
claimed by your honorable body to instruct my faith'' One wiser and 
better than we, has said of the sister virtues, “ the greatest of these is char¬ 
ity.” Not seemingly impressed with the truth of this sentiment, you give to 
faith the precedence; and hence a new reading to a text heretofore much 
respected, which I presume you would render—“ works without faith are 
dead.” To sustain and support the leading measures and policy of the Pres- 
identy would not insure my vindication against your censure, unless sanctified 
also by my '‘'-faith'' How long since this new pov;er of directing my 
faithy" religious or political, was committed to your charge? And what 
process does your modern democracy teach in plying its precepts? The 
victims of the Inquisition have often made oral confessions of a faith which 
the heart spurned. Would such suffice you ? And if yea, “ is thy servant 
a dog that he should do this thing 1" 

In review, then, of this 8th resolution, I have found nothing in it to com¬ 
mand my respect, much less my obedience. It is quite impossible for me 
to conceive that the people of Mississippi have ever deliberately willed their 
Senators instructions, which propose to make them clerks and registers of 
the President’s will. It would imply a disrespect I am incapable of enter¬ 
taining toward them, to believe for a moment they have intentionally ad¬ 
vised so much of political humiliation. And, tenacious as I hope ever to be 
of their honor and interests, and faithful to discharge the high trusts they have 
reposed in me, I shall forbear to surrender myself, and my constitutional du¬ 
ties, to the ends and objects indicated by this resolution. 

Following you in that order in which your vigilance has accompanied my 
official career, to guard and guide my actions, and to bestow timely censure 
for supposed delinquencies, I come to note more particularly your resolu¬ 
tions of22d February last. 

Your first resolve declares, that in ray vote on the independent Treasury 
bill, I “ grossly violated the known will of a large majority of the people 
of Mississippi.” Each of your honorable body, in voting for this resolution, 


assumes it as of his personal knowledge, and together avouch jour collective 
responsibility for the truth of its assertion. If 1 could recognise the integrity 
of this imputation, i have sufficient self-respect to believe, that I should 
feel my own conduct, rather than your disparaging reproaches, had dis¬ 
honored me. I know there are those of both political parties who hold and 
act upon this subject differently ; who believe, that, when in office, they are 
invested \v\\.\\ power as of personal rights to be used and exercised as their 
individual opinions shall honestly dictate. However true this may be, as 
to those offices where the laws prescribe and define a precise course of 
duty, [ hold the principle essentially difierent in respect to those official 
trusts, through which laws are derived, and popular policy prescribed. With 
reference to,these, the wide field of discretion in which measures and policy 
have their origin, 1 cannot regard as the prerogative of ojficial discretion ; 
but as honorary agencies in which the will and interests of the constituency 
should be consulted with the most scrupulous fidelity. 1 consider that this prin¬ 
ciple pervades our entire system, and extends as well to executive as legis¬ 
lative offices. All their ofiicial discretionary action^ should conform to the 
will and wishes of their constituents. Mine, in a particular sense, are the 
people of Mississippi. 1 can defer to no popular will superior to theirs, nor 
sustain any interest paramount to theirs. In legislating with other Senators 
for all the States, I consider it my duty to speak the voice of Mississippi. 
The aggregate will and interest of the United States^ is more certainly 
and properly ascertained by a true representation of each several State. 
Not that each several State should achieve its exclusive interest in the result 
of such legislation ; (this of course would be impossible;) but the equal and 
just concessions which should follow^ in producing a law for the government 
of alf should proceed from a faith ful assertion by the representative of the 
separate will and wishes of each. 

Such is the light in w'hich I apprehend my duty, and on these principles 
shall ever willingly abide the instruction of my constituents. I have never 
thought myself commissioned to legislate upon the simple responsibility of 
my own judgment, for the good of all the people of the United States^ as a 
collective mass., pretermitting the particular interests of my constituents. 
Such a view' of duty, to my perception, savors too strongly of consolida¬ 
tion, and palters to federal supremacy with a sacrifice of local interests, 
which over-taxes the selfish infirmities ol our nature, and strains at a sort 
of transcendental patriotism but little in harmony with the Stales right theor}' 
of our system. What more prudish (if not culpable) afiectation of official 
independence could be exhibited, than to see the representatives from Rhode 
Island urging a system of revenue by direct taxes, and those from Mississip¬ 
pi foremost in their zeal for a protective tariff, each contending for the good 
of the nation at large., yet directly adverse to the will and wishes of their 
respective States? 

In these views I trust your honorable body will perceive but an amplifi¬ 
cation of the principles you profess, and which it has been my pleasure to 
avow in repelling your imputation against me. I have no necessity to 
elaborate an argument in elucidation of the particular question on which 
you have arraigned my official integrity. The circumstantial evidence 
furnished by the election of 1839, you construed disproof positive in one 
way; I believed and acted upon it in another w'ay. Time has already 
fairly vindicated my construction of it, and repudiated yours. And the re¬ 
sult, beside admonishing your honorable body, that the verity of a proposi¬ 
tion is not always proportioned to the violence of its assertion, confirms me 


18 


also in the opinion, that the right of instructions has its abiding place with 
the people. And though the Legislature should be respectfully deferred to as 
prima facie exponents of the popular will, yet infallibility, actual or con¬ 
structive, is not their prerogative. 

In your third resolution of February last, you declare: “ That when a 
Representative violates the will of his constituents knowingly by his conduct, 
he is as deserving of reprobation as though written instructions had been de¬ 
livered to him and disregarded.” 

This expression of your opinion concedes fully what I maintain on the 
same subject; that instructions do not derive their obligation by reason of 
their emanating from the Legislature, but because they are charged with the 
people’s will; and that their will is equally obligatory upon the representa¬ 
tive when known to him by any other means^ as if truly reported by instruc¬ 
tion. In other words, legislative resolutions of instruction furnish evidence 
of what the people will; evidence, which is generally correct, and therefore 
binding; but, when manifestly not so, can impose no obligation. 

Another idea here disclosed by your honorable body deserves notice. 
You charge that I well knew, without your advice, the people’s will respect¬ 
ing the subject in question ; and that I was equally bound by my knowledge 
of that will, as if instructed in writing. Whence, then, the necessity or pro¬ 
priety of your instructions 1 The distrust you have chosen thus to record 
against me, betrays an amiable conviction of your superior claims over mine 
to the confidence of our constituents ; and the complacency of the conceit is 
only equalled by the unaffected grace with which you give it utterance. 

Having timely suspected, and duly directed me in my duty with corre.s- 
pondent despatch, you easily convict me with acting “ in derogation of the 
rights of the freemen of” Mississippi ; and then how natural the conclusion 
that for this trangression I deserve “at the hands of their representatives 
their sternest rebuke.” Is it ascertained, then, that you are the ministers 
of justice in such cases? I appeal to our masters. 

In your resolution inviting and requesting me “ forthwith to resign,” I re¬ 
cognise an innocent pastime of your honorable body, and a politeness in 
the manner of expression well suited to the civility of the occasion. And as 
you have not given this in form of instruction, I am relieved from the neces¬ 
sity of combating any such erroneous assertion of right on your part. And 
yet a word on this subject may not be amiss. 

Elected by the people’s representatives, and in the form and manner by the 
people prescribed, I have been commissioned for the constitutional terra of 
six years. I do not know that the people of Mississippi desire to change 
the provision of the constitution of the United States in which this tenure to 
the office is affixed ; and I cannot certainly suspect them of wishing to change 
it in any other way than that appointed by themselves. But not doubting 
the individual sincerity of those of your honorable body who have so re¬ 
spectfully communicated your joint request for my resignation, I feel bound 
in equal candor to reply that I have not yet concluded to second your wishes 
in this behalf; but, at the same time, beg leave to assure you that I hope 
and expect so to deport myself “ that the will of the people of Mississippi 
may be fairly expressed.” 

Distinguished by the preferences of the people of my State with the high 
office their representatives have bestowed upon me, I trust I shall not be 
pertinacious of the honor, when reasons which should influence an honora¬ 
ble man may render my retirement excusable and proper, I do not profess 
to be insensible to such assaults o;f party violence as illy harmonize with 


14 


the morality and intelligence of our people; but I profess to be much more 
willing to encounter these than to permit the aggressors to achieve their 
highest aims by means so unwarranted. I believe there is neither right nor 
propriety in the Legislature to request my resignation ; and, if even desirous 
to surrender my office, I should reluctantly submit to be expelled by such a 
system of legislative usurpation. 

But, so far as this request of your honorable body is intended as an expo¬ 
sition of public opinion or a party creed, it is not foreign to my defence to 
remind you that, as far hack as 1834, there was a party,in our State who 
called themselves the democratic party^ in contradistinction to the State 
rights nullifiers^ and others whom they called bank federalists. In Novem¬ 
ber of that year, a convention was held at the city of Jackson by tiie said 
democratic party to “ rebuke” Senators Poindexter and Black for the high 
crime, among others imputed, of uniting themselves with nullijiers^ Slc. “ in 
violation of tlie public sentiment of the people of Mississippi.” The names 
of those composing that convention are appended to this communication, 
with not the slightest intentional disrespect to any one of them, but for the 
purpose of showing that they were a fair representation of the democracy of 
that day, and what their opinion on this question of exacting resignations of 
office. 1 extract from page 6 of the published pamphlet containing the 
elaborate protest of that convention, the following declaration of party faith : 

“ In exercising the republican privilege of protesting against the proceedings of their 
public agents, the democracy of Mississippi do hot claim the power of displacing those 
agents from office^ however delinquent^ misguided, or weak-minded they may be, until 
their regular term of service for which they were elected expires nor do they claim the 
right of annulling the acts of those agents duly commissioned by them, although (hose acts 
may be against their will and interests, until they can constitutionally and legally do so, 
by electing other agents more trustworthy. They claim the privilege of protest against 
the acts of public servants as a constitutional ahb deaiocuatic measure, from which their 
public servants, if injustice be done them, can always appeal to the ballot-box,” &c. &c. 

If such was democracy in 1834, how changed if not improved in 1839. 
And a portion of the names affixed to the protest of 1834, considered of in 
conjunction with the ayes and noes recorded upon the resolutions of your 
honorable body, shows that there are patriot politicians who hold it yet a 
doubtful question, whether self-consistency or popular credulity may be best 
relied on for popular favor. 

Having thus examined the accusations of your honorable body against me, 
I submit the questions in controversy to our common constituents, whose right 
alone I recognise to pass final judgment between us. The exposition of my 
opinion upon the doctrine of instructions has been designedly particular, and 
such as 1 have ever avowed and firmly believe. I have no motive for dis¬ 
guise or concealment; and, desirous to avoid misrepresentation from any 
quarter, have endeavored to meet all your questions, and the entire subject, 
in full force. Whether these opinions will satisfy either your honorable 
body or “ the high-thinking portion of the Whig parly,” I know not. I only 
know they are such as I have ever heretofore held and expressed, and am 
willing to abide by. And they are such, too, as I verily believe to be the 
true faith of republican democracy. 

However humble my capacity to serve the State, I have felt in my po¬ 
sition no caiisfi for censure or self-reproach; of course, therefore, have re¬ 
garded yours, and that which I have seJm from other sources, as undeserved. 
But of this, and all else submitted, thos<|; having less of personal interest will 
best determine. I 

JOHN HENDERSON. 

WAsnr.xGTON, December 28, 1840. 


15 


Note.— It is a remarkable fact, that a doctrine which is professed to be so generally ac¬ 
knowledged, particularly in the South and West, should be so vaguely or diversely under¬ 
stood. I am averse to believe the difficulty lies in the subject itself; for, to my apprehen¬ 
sion, its rules and principles are the rational and necessary deductions from our theory of 
Government. And it is no less a folly than an error in the Representative to deny its 
claim ; for the people can, and will, demand that the principle shall be respected. The re¬ 
cently defeated candidate for the Presidency may console himself in retirement, that he has 
fallen in a virtuouS|attempt to establish principles, which, in his belief, were for the good of 
all. But the fact stands out in bold relief, that he was not appointed the people’s guardian, 
to govern them by his own will, but an agent to execute theirs. He persisted in the pro¬ 
fessions of his integyity to assert his own policy for their benefit; and the people have dis¬ 
carded him. So in my belief should they ever do to all who contemn their will. 

The greater number of argument and expositions upon this subject which I find extant, 
seem to have been called forth rather on the side of those who have controverted its essen¬ 
tial principles. Precedent, pride, and power, are all opposed to popular freedom. The 
egotism of the wise man in office, maugre all his professions, yields a reluctant assent to 
become in good faith the agent of the people, and to permit their will to direct his vote 
and action. 

The ingenious sophisms of th« elnquonf. Burke, before tlie electors of Bristol, have evi¬ 
dently influenced the opinion of many of our countrymen, who have struggled for their own 
official independence, or for the consolidation principle of our Federal Government. Few 
appear to have looked the question full in the face, and boldly traced out the presumption 
of direct opposition ; but the pretexts which have been resorted to for evading its legitimate 
demands, are endless. While, on the other hand, its perversion and abuse by the State 
Legislatures from time to time have tended greatly to involve the doctrine, and lost for it 
much of that vital energy which, in my opinion, it should always exert. 

The proclamation of President Jackson assumed strung national grounds, and pressed a 
theory wdth much freedom to relieve the representative from being too much palsied by 
the will of his constituents a theory which assumed this to be “ a Government in 
which the people of all the States collectively are represented.” That the representatives, 
“are all representatives of the United States, not representatives of the particular States 
from which they come." That they were “paid by the United States, not by the State, 
nor accountable to it (the State) for any act done in the performance of their legislative 
functions." That the will of their constituents was to influence them only when par¬ 
tial or local hit crests" came in conflict with each other, but it was their *' first and highest 
duty to promote the general good." The excej)tion thus made in favor of the popular 
will of the constituent, is upon its face a solecism—a practical absurdity ; and seems to 
have been put in to soften, without qualifying, the boldness of the general declaration. 
Because there is no subject of general legislation, committed to Congress, but pre-supposes, 
and, in truth, must contemplate, some general good to bo prejudiced or promoted by legis¬ 
lating thereon. And if the first and highest" duty of the representative be to promote 
the general good, when will the secondary and lower duty of the representative come in 
turn, to promote the local good ? The question of a tarift’ is supposed to affect local inter¬ 
ests, in conflict with each other. But as the first and highest duty of the representative 
is for the good of the whole, and as the good of the whole is obviously to be affected by 
this measure, therefore the local will and interest of the constituent is to be postponed. 
This being true of every possible question, in a greater or less degree, the doctrine of in¬ 
struction is by this proclamation completely expunged. 

Five States of the Union, viz : Maine, Massachu.setts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and 
North Carolina, have incorporated into their respective constitutions the right of Xhe people 
to instruct their State representatives. 

In the 1st session of the 1st Congress, while the amendments of the constitution were 
under discussion, Mr. Tucker, of South Carolina, proposed an amendment expressly 
declaratoi'y of the right of the people to “ instruct their representatives.” The amendment 
was lost; but in debating it, Mr. Madison said the declaration of such right was true, so 
far as it meant the “ giving advice and expressing the wishes of the people,” though he 
denied its obligatory force sc. In conformity with this idea, several of the States ex¬ 
press all such resolutions in form of advice or opinion. But this form, in my opinion, is 
equally as obligatory as to use the phraseology of instruction for the question should 
always be, is it the will of the people ? 

The Legislature of Ohio, inJ1834, resolved, “ That the right of instruction belongs prop¬ 
erly to the people, and that it is an abuse of that right whenever the Legislature instructs 


16 


contrary to that will.” Mr. Giles, of Virginia, in 1811, denied the right of the Legislature 
to instruct him in his duties of United States Senator. “I do not (said he) consider 
myself the representative of the Legislature of Virginia; * • but of the people of the 

United Statesf’ &c. This high-toned consolidation sentiment brought him in conflict 
with the Legislature, who, in claiming their dominion over him, ran equally to the other 
extreme. Such has been the occasional agitations of this question, and such is the con¬ 
fusion, to a great extent, with which it pervades the public mind. 


The following are the names referred to in page 14. 


THOMAS HINDS, Presidfrnt. 

^ Presidents. 
M. r. DKOKArrEitREin, > 

John H. MAtionr, 7 o ^ • 

G. R. Fall, ' \ Secretaries. 


From the County of Jefferson. —Thos. Hinds, Philip B. Harrison, Philip O. Hughes, 
F. W. Green, Peter C. Chamblcs, Joseph Dunbar, Samuel C. Greene, James M. Smith. 

From the County of Adams. —A. Campbell, Amoa Alexander, W. T. Hewitt, Samuel 
Ivy,* S. A Cartwright,* Joseph H. Holt, John B. Nevitt, James Stockman,* John 
Fleming.* 

From the County of Amite .— Aaron Butler, Sr., Zachariah Lee, James Denman, 
Thos. R. Cheatham. 

From the County of Claiborne. —E. W. Harring, John S. Rowland, Isham Arthur, 
Thos. D. Jeffers. 

From the County of Copiah. —B. Kennedy, John Core. 

From the County of Covington. —Gilbert D. Gere, Samuel Harthorn, Sr., E. S. Ka¬ 
gan, James L. Jolley, Alex. S. Harper. 

From the County of Carroll. —A. W. G. Davis, Seth C. Platner. 

From the County of Franklin. —Thomas Cotton, Adam Carraway. 

From the County of Hinds. —John H. Mallory, Thos. Woodridge, Sr., H. D. Red- 
wine, Alfred B. Cabbness, B. W. Edwards, Robert W. Roberts, Vincent Murphy, Geo. 
R. Fall, James Talbot, H. W. Dunlap, James McLarn, Henry S. Foote, George C. 
Dameron. 

From the County of Holmes. —Danl. M. Dulany, Jefferson Fatherce, W. \V. Cherry, 
Wiley Davis, S. M. Lynch. 

From the County of Jones. —John Moffitt, Thomas L. Mott. 

From the County of Lawrence. —Jos. Cooper, J. R. Chambers, Mathew B. Cannon, 
Harmon Runnels, Wm. Weathershy, Perry Cohea. 

From the County of Madison. —Hector McNeill, John S. Gooch. 

From the County of Marion. —Gardner Holcomb. 

From the County of Neshoba. —James Ellis. 

From the County of Pike. —Franklin Love, A. P. Cunningham, James Y. McNabb. 

From the County of Perry. —Samuel F. Charlescraft. 

From the County of Rankin. —James Myers, Wm. B. Word, John N. Drake, 0. C. 
Deacs, Silas C. Walker, Alex. McDonald, Wm. Carter, Samuel Miles, Samuel D. Hay, 
W., D. Hawthorn, Daniel Fore, Eleazer Harris, Wm. T. Robertson. 

From the County of Simpson. —John A. Banks, John Berry, Sr. 

From the County of Scott. —Joshua Collins, Wade Holland, Wade Lainpton. 

From the County of Tallakatchee. —G. W. Martin, J. R. Girault, Thomas Thatcher. 

From the County of Warren. —Edwin G. Cook, Jas. R. Blunt, Blanton McAulpin. 

From the County of Wilkinson. —M. F. Degraffenreid, Thos. H. Prosser, Stanhope 
Posey. 

From the County of Yallabusha. —Allen Walker, John H. M’Kinnie. 

From the County of Yazoo. —Howell W. Runnels, James M. Long, Robert E. Beat- 
tie, Thomas Rawlins, Isham Arnold, John J. Michie, Robert McKinstry, Gabriel Swayze, 


* Authorized to be signed since the Convention adjourned, not being able to attend at the time. 




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